1st MegaCon ever and I walked away impressed. Yesterday I traveled south to Orlando to visit the Orange County Convention Center where the largest anime, sci-fi, all-around-nerdtastic convention in Florida takes place. My girlfriend and I left at 5AM to get to Orlando by 7 (per the advice of a friend). We waited in line very briefly for the tickets but they didn’t open the doors until 10AM. A lot of people stood in line to get into the main convention hall, but we aren’t saps! We waited til the doors were open and then people flushed in like a corral of bulls. Panels, exhibits, comic artists and writers, and oh the costuming NERDS!

Read on for costuming tales and photos galore!

MEGACON GIJINKA

The pokemon gijinka here did not let me down!

I was shocked and surprised at how much pokemon gijinka was here. I thought I would only see 1 or 2 gijinka costumes. Not counting the non-gijinka pokemon related costumes, there were at least 2 dozen costumes. Unfortunately, not all of them were documented here but what we have here is very impressive. Before we go further and examine each one, I want to thank all the gijinka cosplayers and pokemon fans at MegaCon who are keeping this fandom alive. You all showed a lot of excitement and were really great models for my photos. On with the show!

Ok, good start. A simple Pikachu gijinka. It’ a small yellow dress over a brown shirt and maybe a mesh skirt. Pikachu hat w/ ears. Little paint on the cheeks and done! You have an easily recognizable gijinka.

This was the first Legendary gijinka I saw there. A pretty bold move for Ho-Oh. Looks like she took a shawl pattern and used satin or velvet to make the wings/sleeves. She got the color scheme right on, making it easily recognizable. Pretty brave doing a legendary considering how complex their design usually is. Props to this cosplayer. My personal suggestions:

Consider making an elaborate headdress using techniques similar to what Ryoko-demon did for this Team Rocket Jesse Wig.

Apply more gold lining to the skirt, Ho-oh has a lot of gold feathers near his/her underbelly

The mask could use a splash of red, or if you’re super bold, get red contacts and then paint a mask around the face

Talons on the left boot look decent, right boot less so

This was the largest collective group of gijinka I got together. My photo skills are terrible so I really don’t do justice to all of them here. Umbreon on the top left (what’s he all frowny face about?) had a really good Umbreon hat. Not sure if he made that himself but it looked great. The rest of the costume was…ok. Umbreon on the top right was the same way. This is why I’m generally not a fan of Umbreon gijinka. Everyone likes to do it basically because it’s so easy. Black shirt, black pants, a few sewn-on yellow circles and it’s done. However, when someone takes a pokemon that could have an easy construction and then goes the extra mile for it, that’s awesome. The Eevee on the bottom had a huge bushy tail and these wonderful fabric pads around her neck. Raichu on the right had a great little ensemble as well. More on the Ditto…

Ditto was the first gijinka I saw at the con and I was very happy to see it. The fact that someone had been brave enough to tackle the least-gijinkable (new word, yay) pokemon was uplifting. She took the only rout she really had available to her: Lots of pink and two pieces of fabric-covered cardboard. If somebody were to do it again, I’d like to see a giant body sock with some sad empty dots for eyes and a weak grin veiling the horrible reality that you are only good at poorly copying others.

Ditto’s a sad pokemon…

Luxray gijinka! Alright, I’ve been hoping to see an actual one. This one was pretty great. The neck scarf needs work, though. In fact, I’m not even sure what that is around her neck. The blue shirt, while it is exactly the color of the critter (matching clothing with same exact color is tough) still has an existing pattern on it. Otherwise, the tail, the ears, and the little tuft on the top of the head are fantastic.

Aaaand…we follow it right up with a Shinx gijinka. This one’s also pretty simple but also effective. It has the look down nicely. Great color-matching especially with the ears, the eyes on the hoodie and even the yellow used. The yellow armbands are definitely [edit: fabric sewn on]. While that seems cheap, it still works. Sometimes….ok, everytime!…cosplayers need to go for the cheapest route possible while still getting the best effect. In this case, the foam used to make the ears works perfectly.

This was the other legendary I saw at MegaCon. The best thing about seeing this was that I had seen art similar to this before on Tumblr and on DeviantArt. Compared to the art, it looks like the cosplayer tried for a less skimpy outfit. There is nothing wrong with being modest when there are 20,000 people all around you with their clothes on. The pillow hat on her head looked very tough to keep on. She was straining when I took the photo to keep it balanced. The ink and paint she used were already rubbing off. Next time use a sharpie or makeup paint, and castor sealer to retain the color.

But all in all, this lady proves even the most elaborate gijinka art can be done!

Here’s another Pikachu gijinka. There were a lot like these at the con. They’re like pajama-hoodies with the features of the poke-critter on them. I suppose they could be considered gijinka. Especially if there’s more like this next one…

Excellent Dragonite. This was one of the most well-crafted gijinka costumes at the convention especially in terms of fabric. He had all the details of the tail and wings very down pat. The best thing was that there were no loose seems and it looked very professional. Wynaut gets an A for enthusiasm.

SUMMARY OF THE CON

MegaCon is a unique mix for me. There are parts of it that take me back to my old anime days: lots of younger people spouting internet jokes or laughing and running around. Then there are the pieces that remind me more of Dragoncon: the celebrities and discussion panels. It definitely leans to the former. At this point in my life, I’ve really grown out of that. I just don’t enjoy drama anymore. My partiality to Dragoncon definitely shows up in this manner. But here are my cons and pros, my downs and ups with my MegaCon experience this year.

DOWNS:

The convention center was so big and yet it still felt so cramped around the vendors.

Food courts are mostly junk food

Obnoxious high schoolers who whine. A lot.

So many cos-fails.

UPS

Pretty cheap compared to other huge cons. Only $25 for us to get in.

Unless you were there for Stan Lee and Shatner, the panels were pretty tight knit and the comic author booths were open making it feel very inviting and close to the stars (I got to ask Geoff Johns a question!)

Great pokemon/gijinka following there. Bring your DS if you go.

Good costumes start coming out around mid-day

Observation Deck. There is nothing like looking out over the con floor and seeing thousands of fans milling around

In the end, I had a good experience with MegaCon and I definitely recommend it if you live within 2 hours of Orlando. It’s a great introduction to con culture and the pro’s definitely outweigh the cons. If you want to check out more photos visit my Flickr photostream. Also, we’ll have a video up of the con experience on my YouTube channel.

The costumes were great! Thanks for taking a break to get a photo. Also, thanks for stopping by the blog to comment. Let me know if you and your friend are ever interested in appearing on a feature for the blog.